This is a technique I have developed over several years - it involves writing a movie screenplay with the brand as a hero. Or if time is short writing a movie scene.  I began to use the technique because I was being asked to use brand onions, essences and pyramids to develop elaborate communication strategies. And while they are great for developing advertising they are a pain when it comes to developing anything else which requires you to understand at a very deep level what is unique about your brand and how it is likely to behave. Most brand onions (I call them bunions) borrow shamelessly from the category values. In other words if you put all the brands in a category together - their brand schematics would look identical. Because they have each been developed in isolation from the others. When this never happens in the real world and can't. Worse still they are 2 dimensional because there is no conflict - they are airbrushed snapshots - an orgy of client smugness and aspiration.

So here's how to change that.  First we borrow from Hollywood the rigorous structure of the movie screenplay. Which is formulaic. This doesn't matter because what it will help us to do is to bring the character of our brand to life and separate it from all its key competitors. Who we stick in the movie as other cast members. You can put any characters in their - as long as it doesn't get too crowded. And each character needs to interact with each of the others. This works really well for beer brands because they are often carbon copies of each other - its like a buddy movie - because you are writing for one character, the technique amplifies the differences between your character and the competitors.Next we have to add conflict - lots of it because conflict is what makes a character grow and change to overcome obstacles.  This is pure storytelling - I don't typically put beer brands in a bar - that's predictable - that's why alcohol ads are frequently dull - they are commercials for the entire category - a fun night out.

So how to do it. Well first pick a genre - any genre where the narrative develops and the character develops (Waiting for Godot won't help you much). Next choose your cast and establish a pen portrait of each. Then start to tell the story choosing a disaster which knocks the lead character out of the world they know. And an objective - what is it the character needs to achieve by the end of the movie (or the scene if that's all your doing) . The rest is brainstorming. Once you constructed your story ask yourself the following questions - what qualities made our character successful? What did they have to change in their own lives? What did they change to? Then write down these 4-5 characteristics and use these to go back to the market situation how the brand needs to behave to be different. By virtue of the exercise you have been through you will find that your brand will be distinctive and that its behaviour will be quite distinct from how competitors will behave.

I have used this technique many times now - in FMCG, in financial services, the drinks market, with NGOs and in cross cultural situations. In the UK, elsewhere in Europe and outside. I have even used it in a research context to get respondents to tell stories about brands - with outstanding results. If you want me to come and teach you the technique then I can do that. I can also run a brand screenplay workshop for you.  Or explain how I use the technique to get something out of brand development research you will not easily replicate elsewhere.